Major prostitution bust in Cooke County, 2 children rescued

By Daniella Rivera&nbsp|&nbsp

Posted: Tue 6:38 PM, Jul 22, 2014

COOKE COUNTY, TX - Nine people, including a minor, are now in custody after a major prostitution bust in Cooke County. It happened earlier this month, and Tuesday, the Cooke County Sheriff's Office released the details.

Nine adults are in custody and a minor detained after a major prostitution bust in Cooke County.

"It's happening right now in our community and unfortunately it's been happening for a while," said Kim Cook with Abigail's Arms, the Cooke County Family Crisis Center.

The Cooke County Sheriff's Office says they worked with Homeland Security's Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit to make the arrests on July 10th and 11th. They also rescued two children, both under the age of three, and placed them with Children's Protective Services.

Cook says this is a wake up call for residents, "With this being right here on 35, this major freeway, kind of an on and off ramp for all types of different offenses, it's very important that the members of our community understand, it really does happen here."

Cook says human trafficking is a dirty little secret you don't expect to find at a national hotel chain. The general manager at the Holiday Inn Express told us the incident never happened here, even after we told them the Cooke County Sheriff's Office said otherwise.

News 12 obtained the arrest records from the Cooke County Sheriff's Office, showing the suspects were taken into custody at the hotel.

"I'm very surprised. You wouldn't think it would happen there," said Nottingham.

But Cook says this can happen anywhere, "We don't associate human trafficking with a major hotel chain, what we associate it is with a seedy hotel, with you know undesirables hanging out at the front, and you know maybe a pay by the hour kind of thing."

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